


I want your name to be Stark

by PrimeFan



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-25 23:06:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13844928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrimeFan/pseuds/PrimeFan
Summary: In the aftermath of the Chitauri invasion, Tony asks Pepper a very important question in a roundabout way.





	I want your name to be Stark

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this thing _four years ago_ and originally posted it on my [tumblr here](http://megamaz.tumblr.com/post/48678000506/i-want-your-name-to-be-stark). I came across it again at random and it's still one of my most favorite things I've ever written.
> 
> And then I remembered, hey, I have an Ao3 account, I should use it.

Tony had lost count of how many days it had been since the Manhattan incident. He remembered feeling more sore than triumphant, caught somewhere between relieved that the entire surreal fiasco was over and forcing himself not to think about things like ‘casualties’ and 'collateral damage’ and 'this is what you’re going to be doing for the foreseeable future’.

Instead, he concentrated on getting Bruce Banner to stay and help at Stark Tower, refitting the building in the image of the team he was now a part of. Somehow. He thought about the hours and days spent on creating the containment device for the Tessaract, the thunder that had rumbled as Thor emphatically told Fury that his brother and the cube would both be going with him back to Asgard.

As if there had ever been any doubt.

He thought about how they had all gone their separate ways, except for Bruce who had decided to stay with all he owned in a single backpack.

In between falling from the sky, Hulk -Bruce- saving him and sending Loki off to Asgardian punishment, Pepper had appeared before his battered form and held him. Her face had been buried in his shoulder, shaking, and the palm of a hand pressed against his chest. The arc reactor had been warm beneath her fingers. The quiet hum of it mixed with his natural heart beat, proof that he hadn’t been swallowed by a portal to nowhere.

He just listened to her breath and buried his face in her hair. They didn’t say a word for a long time.

Then things got busy for a couple weeks and they didn’t have a chance to talk until the Tessaract was gone from their quiet corner of the galaxy and the gods of thunder and mischief had gone home.

“Only Tony Stark would think it would be a good idea to make a phone call in the middle of saving the world,” she told him afterwards. Her eyes were mercifully dry as she combed his hair with her fingers. His head was in her lap after a few sleepless days of consulting SHIELD and PR. If he was a bit sleepy and human for once, well, he could be excused.

“It was JARVIS’ idea,” he mumbled from half-sleep. She paused.

“Thank you, JARVIS,” she told the AI sincerely. She looked at the man in her lap and tried to pass off her next words as a joke. Her voice shook anyways. “Next time you call on a mission, it better not be to say goodbye.”

“…wasn’t gonna say goodbye,” he whispered. He opened his eyes and looked at the woman he cherished more than anyone, more than anything, ever. “Was gonna say the next building was gonna have your name on the lease.”

“'Potts’ on the lease, not on the building?"

"Was kinda hoping it’d still be 'Stark’ on the building. And the lease.”

“Oh, I see.”

He looked at her. Her hand had stopped combing his hair. He wasn’t thinking about it cause she didn't see. Maybe he was just bad at this.

“Pepper, it’s still gonna be your name.”

Her voice shook and it had nothing to do with reliving his near death experience. Her eyes went wide and she looked down at him. “What?”

Tony was tired and sore. The bruises on his face and body were barely yellowing. His t-shirt was baggy and not cool in the slightest and his sweats were worn and torn. His hair wasn’t styled and must have felt at least a little dingy from the sweat of hours of work. There were bags under his eyes from lack of sleep and too much lab time.

He raised his calloused hand to her face and swallowed. It had been easier to steer a nuke into space then to have this conversation.

_Spit it out, Tony._

“Pepper Potts, I want your last name to be Stark."

Pepper was mentally exhausted. Her make-up was nonexistent and her feet and legs were tired from running around New York in high heels and overseeing Stark Tower’s- _Avengers Tower’s_ -repairs. Her hair was in a messy bun but that hadn’t stopped her from running her fingers through it as she read PR statements and managed construction bills. Strands were in her face and there were bags under her eyes from lack of sleep and taking too many phone calls.

She covered his hand with her own and tried to say something over the knot in her throat.

It had been easier to push that damned button.

"Tony, are you…” she managed a watery smile. “…proposing?”

“Is that what I’m doing?” he mused. “Proposing?” There was a rising bit of hysteria in his voice. Because yes, he was proposing to the woman who had stood by him for more than a decade and who had walked through fire with him and for him and waited for him on the other side of a nuclear missile into space and she was _perfect_ and how could Tony have ever thought this was a good idea?

“Tony, Tony,” Pepper soothed and Tony’s brain ground to a halt when she leaned forward and kissed him and his hand slipped into her hair. He smiled. He would never say it was with _relief_ because it wasn’t.

_Was._

“Yes,” she laughed into his lips, into his smile. “You’re an idiot, Tony, because only you, a _billionaire_ , would think to propose without a ring to show for it-”

He pulled back to protest. Because it was true. “-who says I don’t have a-”

She talked through him because that’s what she had to do sometimes. All the time. “-but if you are proposing that my last name be Stark-”

Tony talked through right back because sometimes he had to say things. "-you could keep the Potts in there somewhere, I hear hyphenated names are in nowadays-“

Pepper smiled. ”-then I say, yes.“

They breathed each other in for a few moments as Pepper’s final 'yes’ rang out. Tony shifted until he was able to wrap his arms around her waist and bury his face into her stomach.

”…are you sure?“ he asked in a small voice and it was a stupid question because Pepper pulled back and looked down at him with a severe frown on her face. He much preferred the smile.

"Anthony Edward Stark,” she breathed, “Are you taking back your proposition?”

“Hell. No.” He tensed. “But, ya know…” He waved a hand vaguely into the air. Sometimes he said things. And didn’t say things but Pepper understood everything and that’s why he had asked.

_Proposed._

They were _engaged_.

“Yes, I do know.” And she did. She really did. “Now.” Pepper’s fingers strayed back to his hair and his arms tightened around her. “About that ring.” She paused. Then smiled brightly and leaned down to kiss him again.

“About my name….”

Tony laughed.


End file.
